Farm disease reaches epidemic scale

Farmer Tom Griffith had to destroy 500 sheep

The foot-and-mouth disease has officially spread to all parts of the United Kingdom, destroying hopes that some areas might have remained free from infection.

The disease has hit Scotland and Northern Ireland.

There are fears it could have crossed over to the Republic of Ireland although the Irish Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh has insisted that there are no known cases there.

Emergency measures

Livestock movement ban extended

Horse racing suspended

Ireland v Wales rugby postponed

National parks closed

Access to Scottish Mountains suspended

Reservoir sites in Wales closed to public

Marwell Zoo closed

With the total confirmed cases of the highly-contagious disease at 32, officials expect more cases of foot-and-mouth.

"At the moment we're looking at five or six a day and we might continue to see that number over the next week," said Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore.

But the government still believes that all the cases being discovered now can be traced back to livestock movements before the standstill imposed last Friday.

The infection is believed to have spread to the farm in south Armagh in a consignment of sheep from a market near Carlisle in Cumbria.

Click here to see map of confirmed cases

The first two cases in Scotland are both in Dumfries and Galloway and have also been linked to the outbreak in Cumbria.

Prices for British meat rose at London's key Smithfield market and there were fears of shortages as officials struggled to find a way to allow farmers to resume their suspended trade.

Events cancelled

As the foot-and-mouth outbreak tightened its grip, more major events and attractions have been cancelled or closed.

Prices for meat rising at Smithfield market

The latest event to be hit by the crisis is the Crufts Dog Show, which the Kennel Club has postponed.

The Forestry Commission closed all of its forests to the public as a precaution and nearly all National Trust sites have been closed.

Officials are considering whether to delay more fixtures in rugby's Six Nations Championship.

Saturday's match between Wales and Ireland in Cardiff has already been postponed.

Horse racing has been suspended in Britain until March 7 and the prestigious Cheltenham Festival, due to be held in two weeks, is under threat.

All horse and greyhound racing in Ireland has already been banned.

Blair praises vets

Scientists have put Dolly the sheep into quarantine as a precautionary measure - the animal was the world's first cloned sheep and it has been isolated from other animals at Roslin Institute, near Edinburgh.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has seen at first hand the work of Ministry of Agriculture vets and officials policing farming restrictions in the battle against the disease.

He paid tribute to their work and said farmers must be facing a "desperate situation" with the prospect of losing the herds they had built up over years.

After visiting a Maff office in Gloucester, Mr Blair said he wanted to praise all those who "have done a magnificent job in trying to track down the outbreak and eradicate it."

European slaughter

Fears of disease spreading have led some European countries to slaughter animals that have been imported from Britain or have been in contact with them.

British farmers have killed and burned about 25,000 cattle, sheep and pigs, while France is planning to destroy more than three times that number.

Vehicles from Britain disinfected as a precaution

The French total of 50,000 animals to be slaughtered is nearly four times the number of animals to be culled in the UK where the outbreak was discovered.

In Germany, health officials said they were optimistic that the disease had not spread to the country, but the all-clear might only come at the end of March.

As a precaution, the government has ordered the slaughter of all sheep and goats brought into the country from Britain.

Across Europe, travellers from the UK face new checks. Channel tunnel operator Eurotunnel said it would disinfect all vehicles travelling from Britain as a precaution.

Britain has enforced draconian measures to stamp out the highly infectious disease

Among them is a worldwide ban on British livestock and animal products, which is costing the country £8m in lost sales per week.

Antwerp Zoo in Belgium has deferred an exchange of two young tigers with London Zoo because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

That shipment had been due in the next few days.

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